Coronavirus, Austria extends lockdown. Germany towards extension

2021-01-04T12:10:00.616Z

Austria extends lockdown until January 24 to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. This was announced by Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Verdi) following the blockade of the opposition on mass tests. The resumption date of the schools still remains to be defined, but they will remain closed until January 17. Gastronomy and shops will be closed until 24 January inclusive in Austria. During the day, further meetings are planned between the Minister of Health Anschober and the heads of delegation of the opposition parties. Meanwhile, today Austria records 1,642 new coronavirus infections that have emerged in the last 24 hours (337 in Upper Austria, 298 in Lower Austria and 'only' 154 in the capital Vienna). The number of deaths yesterday was 33 for a total of 6,357 since the beginning of the pandemic. 365,258 people have contracted the coronavirus in Austria and 340,273 have recovered to date. Covid patients hospitalized in normal wards are 2,321 (94 more than yesterday's figure) and 368 need intensive care. In Germany, the federal government and those of the 16 German lands would have reached an agreement to extend the lockdown until January 31st. This is what Bild writes, even if the final decision will be taken tomorrow by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 prime ministers. Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia - which currently have a particularly high number of new cases - have strongly supported the extension to the end of the month of the blockade, in force since December 16 and which provides for the closure of schools, bars, restaurants and many shops. A patchy reopening of schools in the UK today, at the end of the traditional British Christmas holidays, in a climate of uncertainty among families, principals and teachers while the government of Boris Johnson is now openly evoking a third national lockdown to deal with the spread of the so-called 'English variant' of the covid. Only some elementary school children in a part of the counties of England returned to the schools this morning, after the extension of the closure decided instead for all the secondary schools of the kingdom at least until January 18 and then expanded in different territories (including London). to the little ones. yesterday Prime Minister Johnson invited parents to send their children to school, where permitted, however, speaking of "very, very low risks" in the specific reality of classrooms. but he admitted that the general contagion situation in the country, favored by the accelerated spread of the new strain, could impose a further life on the restrictions in the short term. concept reiterated today by his Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, who did not rule out an upcoming third national lockdown by arguing that the current system of 'tiers' (local alerts graduated according to 4 levels of danger) "is no longer sufficient in the face of variant "which emerged in recent weeks: variane responsible for a large part of the latest surge in cases on the island up to over 50,000 per day in the last 6 days.